Today is Great Poetry Reading Day so for your enjoyment here are a few I consider great.

If by Paul Lawrence Dunbar

If life were but a dream, my Love,And death the waking time;If day had not a beam, my Love,And night had not a rhyme, --A barren, barren world were thisWithout one saving gleam;I'd only ask that with a kissYou'd wake me from the dream.

If dreaming were the sum of days,And loving were the bane;If battling for a wreath of baysCould soothe a heart in pain, --I'd scorn the meed of battle's might,All other aims aboveI'd choose the human's higher right,To suffer and to love!

City Trees by Edna St. Vincent Millay

The trees along this city street,Save for the traffic and the trains,Would make a sound as thin and sweetAs trees in country lanes.

And people standing in their shadeOut of a shower, undoubtedlyWould hear such music as is madeUpon a country tree.

Oh, little leaves that are so dumbAgainst the shrieking city air,I watch you when the wind has come,—I know what sound is there.